Jones left in the first half with just 14 rushing yards on eight attempts. And his backups didn't fare much better. Tashard Choice rushed five times for 14 yards, and DeMarco Murray rushed 10 times for 32 yards. This came against the NFL's 25th-ranked run defense, according to Football Outsiders. Unfortunately, the Cowboys' run offense is dead last.

And we saw why Sunday. Inexplicably, the Cowboys decided to run the ball late in the game and, predictably, it cost them. Even Dallas owner Jerry Jones knew that. "You'll always second-guess whether or not we should have tried to run a little offense down there instead of running it three times. We went conservative rather than try to get some points and it bit us."

Jones, according to Yahoo.com's Michael Silver, had some additional thoughts on the drive in question. “When you get in a situation like that, you’ve got to go for the kill,” Jones said. “I felt like we could’ve been more aggressive. Our defense had been good all day, but you knew Brady had a length-of-the-field drive in him -- so it didn’t surprise me at all when he took them down at the end.”

Even with Felix Jones out, NBC reported Sunday night that Choice was on the trading block.

Whoever's in the backfield, the Cowboys have to be able to run the ball.

"We've got to be more consistent with it," tight end Jason Witten said of the running game, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "[The Patriots] are big up front. We knew that. But we have to be better at it. There are no excuses. You have to find ways to run."

"When I get an opportunity when I'm in there, I'm just going to try to make plays and continue to work hard," he said. "I think Felix is going to make a full recovery. I think he'll be fine. He's tough. He's a fighter."

In other injury-related goings-on, there's more bad news for Dallas. Starting guard Bill Nagy will likely miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle suffered during the Patriots game. CBS Rapid Reporter Nick Eatman writes that veteran Derrick Dockery has been out for three weeks with a broken tibia/sprained knee. If he's not ready to return, outside help at guard could be on the way.

UPDATED 8:44 p.m. ET: Garrett said today that he and Jones had a good conversation today about Sunday's game.

"I think everyone is well intended," Garrett said. "Everybody is passionate about it, and when you lose a ballgame like that sometimes things are said and you've just got to kind of understand what the environment is, process it and move on. We all went up there and we swung the bat hard against New England. ... We came out on the short end of it. We've got to somehow process that and go forward. We have a great challenge this week against St. Louis."

And though he might not have intended for it to sound this way, some of his comments made it appear that he wasn't really blaming the coaches for Dallas' inadequacies.

"We work these situations over and over and over again, in hopes that when we get in those situations, we can execute ball plays to allow us to win," Garrett said. "At the end of this thing it comes down to execution, and we have to be able to block them, we have to be able to run, we have to be able to throw and catch, we have to be able to tackle, we have to be able to catch the ball on defense, make a play. And as coaches, what we're trying to do is put our players in a position to do that as well as we can."

Felix Jones to miss time, Jerry Jones questions O

YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T WATCH THE GAMES, IT'S NOT ROMO, IT'S AN INABILITY TO RUN THE FOOTBALL... PERIOD. THEY HAVE 2 ROOKIES, A WAIVER WIRE PICK UP, AND 2 OLD MEN ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE - PERIOD END OF STORY. IF THEY COULD RUN THE FOOTBALL, THEY WOULD BE 5-0, BUT THEY CAN'T, SO THE GAMES ARE CLOSE, ROMO TURNS IN OVER, THEY CAN'T RUN OUT THE CLOCK, AND THE SUCK IN THE RED ZONE.

Since: Aug 21, 2008

Posted on: October 17, 2011 6:20 pm

Jerry "MICRO-MANAGE" Jones - you are an idiot

JERRY, It's not the freaking play calling, learn football! It's the stinking offensive line which is causing an inability to run the football - PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's play the "IF - THEN" game. IF the Cowboys could run the football.... THEN they would be able to be more affective in the redzone, hold on to leads late in games, run the clock out, and not have to rely on Romo losing a game for you...... PERIOD! END OF STORY............

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WHEN YOU HAVE TWO ROOKIES, A WAIVER WIRE PICK UP, AND 2 OLD PLAYERS ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE???????? DUH!!!!!!!!!! IT MEANS YOU ARE GOING TO SUCK RUNNING THE BALL - THAT IS THE PROBLEM, everything else would take care of itself if the Cowboys could just RUN THE FOOTBALL - Expect the struggles and close games to continue all year when they play the playoff type teams.

Since: Aug 24, 2006

Posted on: October 17, 2011 4:11 pm

Felix Jones to miss time, Jerry Jones questions O

Jerry Jones made Romo a 'superstar.Romo is going on 31 & Jones will insist on starting him for at least 4 more years.Jones is so stubborn about this, Romo will still be their starter even after Dallas finishes in the celler of the NFC East.

Since: Oct 7, 2011

Posted on: October 17, 2011 3:44 pm

Felix Jones to miss time, Jerry Jones questions O

Whoever made Romo a superstar is too blame. Until they get rid of him the Cowboys are screwed if they do and screwed if they dont throw the ball. People just assume the Cowboys players are great because they are Cowboys, well the records dont lie, I dont think Garret will be coach for long and if he is they wont be winning.

Since: Sep 16, 2006

Posted on: October 17, 2011 3:33 pm

Felix Jones to miss time, Jerry Jones questions O

this sure counters all the idiots that post on here that Jones calls the plays.

Since: Sep 11, 2006

Posted on: October 17, 2011 3:26 pm

Felix Jones to miss time, Jerry Jones questions O

Who in their right mind would have let that choke-machine Romo start throwing late in the game?? Cowboys D was just terrible on that last Pats drive!! COwboys will be watching playoffs from home again this year!!

Since: Mar 15, 2011

Posted on: October 17, 2011 2:50 pm

Conservative O

Dallas went conservative because Jason Garrett was terrified of letting Romo throw the ball into coverage again for an easy INT---very simple.